News: Earthquake, Frank Bruni, Google Glass, Louisiana

Five earthquakes hit central Oklahoma early Tuesday.

Major 7.8 earthquake strikes on border of Iran and Pakistan, hundreds dead.

Warhol's former townhouse on market for $5.8 million.

Teens are now snorting condoms.

U.S. Black Hawk heicopter crashes near North Korea border: "Yonhap quoted emergency rescue workers as saying the 12 service personnel on board the helicopter had survived the crash, which comes at a time of heightened military tensions on the Korean peninsula."

25 homophobic tweets after the Boston Marathon.

John Becker files lawsuit seeking records behind right wing-funded damaging and flawed Mark Regnerus study on gay parenting.

Early adopters to get Google Glass in the next few days: "The first batch of Explorers is the 2,000 or so attendees from last year’s I/O conference that pre-ordered the prototype. All Explorers will have to pay $1,500 for the device."

Ian McKellen on Margaret Thatcher's death: "Lest we forget, this nasty, brutish and short measure of the third Thatcher administration, was designed to slander homosexuality..."

Beyoncé busts out provocative bedazzled costume.

Jamie Foxx gets blue for new role.

Conservatives claim Florist who discriminated in Washington state is a victim of gay Nazism: "Someone looking for a business idea might test just how strong the market for brown shirts actually is in Washington State."

Gay singer-songwriter Josh Schurr grew up in a conservative Christian environment and wrote this song to help others in his situation get through coming out.

Adam Lambert was given the key to Miami Beach.

Frank Bruni: Let's retire the phrase 'gay Jackie Robinson'. "As a few other observers have noted, it doesn’t do justice to Robinson’s experience and to the many differences between the challenges he confronted and those facing the first man or men to acknowledge being gay while still active in one of America’s four major professional sports (baseball, football, basketball and hockey)."

Royal Oaks, Michigan to vote on LGBT non-discrimination ordinance in November.

Louisiana lawmaker Alan Seabaugh wants to guarantee anti-LGBT employment discriminatino with new bill. "Provides that suits filed for employment discrimination for any reason other than age, disability, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, sickle cell trait, and genetic discrimination shall be dismissed and considered frivolous."

Bradley Cooper on his Oscar nomination: "Even though I knew there was no chance I’d win, the milli-second in between when they open the envelope and they say the name, your brain goes, ‘Wait a minute. It could happen. It’s possible. A one-in-five chance, right?’ And that’s the moment when they have your face on camera. And all of a sudden, you’re dealing with the fact that you didn’t get something that you knew you weren’t going to get in the first place."

University sets up scholarship fund for LGBT students: "The University of Missouri-Kansas City has set up the PRIDE Empowerment Scholarship in order to help gay students pay bills, as well as straight students who are cut off after voicing support for the LGBT community. The Kansas City Star reported that one student, Caleb-Michael Files, 21, would not have been able to return to school if it wasn’t for a $2,000 (£1,300) payment for each semester from the fund."

'Empire State Pride Agenda' Launches $250K Ad Campaign to Push Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA)

New York's Empire sTate Pride Agenda is launching a multimedia ad campaign to push for passage of GENDA, the Times Union reports:

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act has been stalled at the Capitol for years, but after the 2011 legalization of same-sex marriage, it has become the "top legislative priority" of the Empire State Pride Agenda, according to Nathan Schaefer, the organization's executive director. The bill would add "gender expression" to a list of factors in state law — including race and sexual orientation — for which discrimination is expressly prohibited.

"Transgendered New Yorkers can be fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes —they can be denied public accommodation," Schaefer said. "We are hopeful we can bring it to the floor based on the reality of very real discrimination that transgender New Yorkers face."

His group is partnering with others to fund the media campaign, which will include radio spots as well as display ads in newspapers and websites. This is the first time a significant advertising campaign has been launched around the bill. Schaefer said it would be a major part of the Pride Agenda's April 30 rally at the Capitol.

Listen to one of the new radio ads HERE.

Gay Officer is Among Three Boston Marathon Police Responders Shown on Powerful 'Sports Illustrated' Cover

A new Sports Illustrated cover features a photo that is among the most circulated after the Boston Marathon bombings and shows 78-year-old Bill Iffrig of Lake Stevens, Washington, who was knocked off his feet by the bomb blast, along with three Boston police officers taking action after the attack.

The police officer on the right is the Boston Police Gay Liaison to the community Javier Pagan, Boston Pride reports.

The Dallas Voice adds:

Officer Pagan’s husband, Pedro, is a retired sergeant from the New York Police Department who rescued many people when the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2011, according to a recent profile of Pagan by a Boston CrossFit site. Pagan also escorted LGBT civil rights attorney Mary Bonauto to City Hall Plaza on May 17, 2004, when the Massachusetts Supreme  Judicial Court ruled in favor of marriage equality.

Pagan, a native of Puerto Rico who came out at 26 a year after joining the force, was profiled by the Bay Windows LGBT newspaper when he was named to the position in 2002.

While we're identifying Pagan because this site deals with many LGBT issues, we should take a moment to thank ALL first responders and everyone who stepped up in this time of crisis.

Incidentally, Iffrig was okay. ESPN spoke with him yesterday.

Watch the interview, AFTER THE JUMP...

(h/t tncrm)

Westboro Baptist Church Defector on Why She Left and is Now Fighting for Gay Equality

The NY Post today published a lengthy profile on Libby Phelps Alvarez, who left the Westboro Baptist Church. The interview takes place at what Shirley Phelps-Roper calls the "sodomite rainbow house" which sits directly across the street from her old church.

A few nuggets from the interview:

The whole family talks about homosexuality, every single day. And it’s always about how homosexuals are dooming the world. They talk about fornication and divorce, remarriage and adultery, but the main thing is the homosexual lifestyle. It wasn’t a personal hatred toward anybody. We were taught that we were doing a loving thing.

Either you are one or you’re enabling one, and so everybody — except the Westboro people — is going to hell.

Church was on Sundays, for an hour. All the women had to wear head-coverings, because women are seen as submissive.

Gramps would always do the sermon. He was so good at it, so intense. He would talk about topical things that were going on, and it would always come back to homosexuality, nearly every single time.

Family life at home:

When 9/11 happened, I heard it on the radio in the car. I was actually driving over to the church. It was jaw-dropping. I thought, “Oh my God. I can’t believe that happened.” And then I get to the house and everyone was celebrating, like, “This is awesome! God is punishing this nation!” So I had to change, and be like, “Oh, OK, that’s awesome.” So I did. That’s what I thought.

And her change in attitude:

I don’t really think my personality has changed much, but I think my ideas on life have changed. When I had first left, if I would see a homosexual couple, I would scrunch up my nose. Then it got to where I still thought it was wrong, but I wouldn’t say or do anything. And now it’s to the point where it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t really care if somebody is gay. I know that I want to be good to people. I still believe in God. I just think that he’s more forgiving.

The Evolution of Music: VIDEO

The a cappella group Pentatonix takes us through the musical ages from the 11th Century until now, AFTER THE JUMP...

President Obama: 'The American People Refuse to Be Terrorized' - VIDEO

President Obama gave a briefing to press at the White House this morning in which he said that it is not yet known if a group or individual is behind the attacks on the Boston Marathon.

Said Obama: "This was a heinous and cowardly act, and, given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism...We will find whoever harmed our citizens, and we will bring them to justice. We also know this: the American people refuse to be terrorized. Because what we saw in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness and generosity and love."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...